The Great Depression

black tuesday

29th October 1929

• panic selling from the 24th resulted in a massive 23% crash drop

depression

a time in the country’s history when factories close, banks fail & record levels of unemployment

unemployment stats

• 25% of US population, 14 million people unemployed in 1933

• factory production dropped by 45% from 1929-1932

breadlines

huge queues that formed in front of soup kitchens for soup & bread for the homeless

• 12k free meals given a day in NY

hooverville

shanty town of ramshackle huts where people searching for work/losing their job lived

• 238 people hospitalized in 1931 for rubbish tip food

farmers

income dropped to $5 bil with international trade dropping to $3 bil in 1932

• dustbowl in south led to excess work force + mobs to evade eviction

factory workers

• industrial production fell by 40% with exports falling from $10 bil to $3 bil in 1929-32

• reduced workforce + overproduction = couldn’t afford

the rich

• vanderbilt lost $40 million

• rockfeller lost 80% of his wealth

• winston churchill lost $500k

bankers

10k banks closed 1929-32

• Bank of United States was the largest affected bank

• Panic withdrawal = bankruptcy

major hoover legislations to improve the depression

• Garner-Wagner act

• Hawley-Smoot Tariff

• Organisation of Unemployment Relief

• Reconstruction finance corporation

Reconstruction finance corporation

to stimulate industries

• spent $500 mil more than it had done in 1928 with no effects

• $300 mil planned for distribution but only $30 mil given

Garner-Wagner act

bill proposing $2.1bil to create jobs for the public in Feb 1932 from congress

• denied by hoover

Hawley Smoot Tariff

other nations taxed US goods causing dramatic drops in US exports(1930)

Organisation for Unemployment Relief

promoted local relief efforts in 1931

• more than 3000 offices opened

bonus marchers

veterans struggling to find jobs and fix pay gaps after WW1.

• asked for a pay differential, there were 25k in total

how did the bonus marchers campaign?

10k had arrived in Washing DC setting up camps in front of congress with AAs living side by side.

• 100 injured as Hoover authorized military artillery on 28th July 1933

reasons for Roosevelt’s success during elections

• $20mil given to pensioners & unemployed as NY governor

• deliberate vagueness offering solutions

• targeted Hoover & republican approach

Roosevelt’s image

• travelled across whole USA 20,800km making 15 speeches a day for connection

• photographed with polio showing struggle

• $20k given as NY governor in 1931

• 3Rs

Roosevelt targeting republican

• 1932 “second it attempted to minimize the crash & misled the people to its gravity”

• 1931 “aid must be extended by the government as a matter of social duty” (attacking laissez-faire)

The New Deal

Roosevelt's promise to Americans (Relief, Recovery, Reform)

• Spent $7 bil in total for the deal

• 1932 as response of election

banking in the new deal

• 1933 “Bank Holiday” to close & reopen banks, giving the people trust

• 11,000 reopened out of 18k

alphabet agencies

agencies set up to aid the great depression with alphabetical acronyms

FCA

Farmers Credit Administration

• made loans to 1/5 of all farmers to avoid losing farms

• didn’t affect sharecroppers, tenants, aimed at large firms

AAA

reduced overproduction issues

• paid farmers for food before burning it. Incomes doubled from 1933-39 due to less supply

• 6 million piglets destroyed with 90% of meat burned

CCC

civilian conservation corps

• 2.5 million men aged 18-25 took part, receiving wages, food & purpose for long-term facilities

• targeted at white men, criticized as cheap labor

CWA

civilian works administration

• short-term jobs for 4 million people

• pointless

PWA

public works administration

• $7bil to employ skilled men contributing to public sector

• 70% of schools & 35% of hospital money increased to provide clothing, schools & employment

FERA

Federal Emergency Relief Administration

• $500 mil given to those on the brink of starvation

• requires soup kitchen reimbursement, short-term with no benefit

HOLC

home owners loan corporation

• money loaned to 1mil+ people

• short term

NRA

National Recovery Administration:

codes drawn for firms to include improve rights

• 2.5 million firms with 22 million workers

• voluntary & smaller firm struggles complying with policy

Tennessee Valley Authority

solving drought/dustbowl issue near Tennessee river

New Deal Budget cut

• cut in 1937, unemployment rose back to 10.5 million 1938 & the new deal had ended in Jan 1939

• only a few agencies(such as the SSA) had lasted past the first new deal

New Deal Women

• many found work with alphabet agencies but only as a side thought with 10k women employed in the CCC

• average wage in 1937 was $525 per year when men had $1000

New Deal AAs

• 200,000 gained jobs in the CCC with Mary Mcleod Bethune appointed to an important government role

• CCC campsites were segregated with AAs banned from living in new TVA town Norris

Native Americans

• allowed their own land and law courts

• still in great poverty

SSA(social security act)

setting up a national system of pensions for the elderly, widows & disabled

• anyone and everyone able to receive aid from the government

opposition to New Deal(too little)

• Dr Francis Townsend

• Father Coughlin

Dr Francis Townsend

proposed that 60+ should get a pension of $200 a month

• across the USA, 7000 Townsend clubs were set up to campaign, which the SSA complied to

Father Couglin

40 million listeners to his radio show on Sunday evenings

• vicious attacks on Roosevelt. show cancelled due to anti-semitism

opposition to New Deal(too much)

• businesses

• republicans

• congress

business

formed the liberty league to oppose Roosevelt’s deal with conservative politicians such as Al Smith

• position of power

republican

compared Roosevelt to a dictator, claiming disability due to sexually transmitted disease

• Roosevelt still won by 25 mil votes, “everyone is against the New Deal except the voters.”

supreme court

May 1935, a poultry company claimed the NRA unconstitutional with too much federal power

• Roosevelt asked to reappoint 6 of 9 judges as members of his party (kinda fishy)

Second New Deal Bills

• The Wagner Act

• The Social Security Act

• The Works Progress Administration

• The Resettlement Administration(helped small farmers with 500,000 families relocated)

The Wagner Act

1935

Workers rights to join trade unions + bargain collectively (negotiate with employers).

Illegal to fire workers for joining a union & set up "company unions".

America during ww2

Pearl Habour 7th December 1941

• 2000 killed, 21 warships sunk, leading to US declaring war and stopping isolationism

Cash & Carry Plan

November 1939:

• Britain & France buying weaponry

• 50 warships to Britain in June 1940

Lend Lease

March 1941:

• $7 billion worth of weapons lent for no return

• strengthen relationships + boost manufacturing

ww2 production

• 14 million worked in factories with 300,000 war planes produced

• 4 million people migrating from S > N (including AAs)

• 7 million women joining work force, 300,000 joining armed forces

ww2 employment

• USA produced 50% of global weaponry

• $229 billion reinvested to bonds

• 0.75 million employees in 1 firm (general motors)

ww2 farming

20yrs of depressed prices gone after demand from allies increased

AA employment WW2

• 400k from S > N with wages doubling to $1k (still half of white workers)

• Roosevelt signed executive order 8802 for defense workers to end discrimination in June 1941

• 3000 whites walked out after 3 blacks got promoted(1942 firm)

AA armed forces WW2

black only units with white officers

• 1 million joined but only allowed to fight in 1944 if they were a marine

• black nurses only tended to black soldiers

AA discrimination WW2

• only 58 AAs rose to officer rank

• assigned to load ammunition onto ships with a major accident in July 1944 killing 323 people

• many integrated units in 1945 with February 1946 ending all discrimination.